Was This Review Helpful?
by TesubCalle
Summary: One night, Timothy McGee, aka, Thom E. Gemcity, takes a peek at what readers are saying about 'Rock Hollow' over at Amazon. Spoilers for 'Cover Story'. Sort-of inspired by a dream I had. First Tim centric story; please don't hurt me.


**Was this Review Helpful?**

NCIS Special Agent Timothy McGee, aka Thom E. Gemcity, sat in front of his home computer, idly surfing through cyberspace. Author of two novels, '_Deep Six_' and the recently-published sequel, '_Rock Hollow_', Tim was spending a rare night off from free-writing and idea-hashing.

Already, his publisher, Lyndi Crawshaw, was pleased with early sales results for _Rock Hollow_. Publicity surrounding the book, stemming from both from real sources and some creatively false sources, had whet the appetites of Tim's fans.

Tim didn't need the 'coddling' Lyndi insisted her stable of writers required to be productive; any praise and encouragement he received from her, Tim generally took with a huge grain of salt. In his mind, all the praise in the world wasn't going to un-block him when he was stuck on a plot point. A jazz record playing and stream-of-consciousness typing at his old, manual typewriter was his personal remedy for those difficult times.

He did appreciate fan-mail, although nowadays he was more cautious. An extremely dangerous and unsettling series of incidents had occurred during the early stages of writing _Rock Hollow_. A rather obsessed reader had resorted to murder out of a misguided notion he was 'protecting' Tim. The nut case killed two men and nearly killed Abby before being apprehended.

But that was behind him, now, and the block that had impeded Tim at chapter 6 long since removed. His trusted colleagues had also stopped ribbing him for his liberal use of their personality traits as templates for his fictional characters. For a while, he'd denied they were the source material, but the murders committed by the crazy fan had forced Tim to admit the truth.

In-between posting on a message board and checking his personal e-mails, Tim hopped over to the Books section at the on-line seller, Amazon. He'd heard once about an author that had submitted a string of false reviews for his own book at the site, in hopes of raising hype. Tim decided he was above the need to spam Amazon for the sake of attention and popularity. His true fans' reactions would be enough. Besides, he could take a negative comment here and there. After all, the beauty of on-line reviews was that they were better than snail-mail. They were so immediate, and truly indicative of a rabid fan-base. Yes, the Internet was where it was at for modern-day fans to gather in order to share thoughts, ideas, opinions, spoilers and the like.

_Rock Hollow_. There it was. His Amazon sales rank was #37 in books. Not too shabby...

Tim was curious to see what his Amazon readers were actually saying about the novel. With a chuckle, he wondered if any of them had the slightest clue he'd be lurking around here, reading every word they wrote.

He listed them from 'Most Helpful Customer Reviews', starting with someone calling themselves 'Ace Bullets'. 15 out of 15 people found Ace Bullets' review helpful. 4 ½ stars...also not too shabby...

The review read:

4 ½ stars out of 5 - **Great Sequel**

'_Rock Hollow_ is the long-anticipated follow-up to Thom E. Gemcity's amazing debut, _Deep Six. _RH picks up pretty much where we left off with the continuing adventures of NCIS Special Agent L.J. Tibbs and his team, consisting of playboy Agent Tommy, killer Mossad officer Lisa, computer-whiz Agent McGregor and his lady-love, lab tech Amy Sutton.

Gemcity's latest novel involves a murderous Petty Officer and an extortion plot with far-reaching and deadly implications. While there are a few obligatory red-herrings (I really didn't figure out 'the ultimate bad guy' until near the end), Gemcity serves up a gripping tale with the right balance of action, humor, romance and suspense. I won't drop any spoilers here, but I will say there are definitely some shocking twists you'll never see coming.

If you liked _Deep Six, _I guarantee you'll enjoy _Rock Hollow_.'

_Yeah, that's a really nice one,_ Tim thought with a small smile. Nothing offensive or overly gushy; nothing too revealing about the plot, either. It annoyed him slightly when reviewers gave important plot points away.

He read several more entries that were in a similar, positive vein, and found he liked what he read there, too. Tim then started skipping around, stopping on random comments as he scrolled through the pages on his computer monitor.

1 out of 6 people found 'GemcityGrrrl's review helpful:

He'd stopped on that one due to its overly fan-girlish nickname. The all-caps review made his eyes hurt, though.

5 stars out of 5 - **awesomest story ever!**

'OMG!!!!I LUV THOM E GEMCITY!!!ROCK HOLLOW IS SOOO GOOD. THANK U FOR GETTING AMY AND AGENT MCGREGOR TOGETHER!!SQUEEEEEEEE!THEYRE SO CUTE! IM SO HAPPY THEY GOT MARRYED. I HATE THAT ARMY CHIK THAT TIBBS IS SEEING NOW. YOU SHOULD HAVE KILLED HER OFF INSTEAD. WHEN IS TOMMY GOING TO ADMIT HE LOVES LISA? OMG, I HOPE U DONT SEND HER BACK HOME. THAT WOULD BE SO SAD. ANYWAY LUV THIS BOOK. WRITE ANOTHER ONE!'

_Well, _Tim thought ruefully. It was clear that particular reader was more into the story for the relationships than the overall plot involving the case that Tibbs and company had been investigating...He had to laugh at those kinds of reviews. Those were often the bread and butter of the comments he received, even in snail-mail.

He continued to read through other posted comments.

5 out of 6 people found 'Watcher's review helpful:

4 stars out of 5 - **Rock-solid story you won't want to miss**

'_Rock Hollow_' is the second in what we'd hope turns out to be a long-running series involving a group of NCIS agents. To the un-initiated, NCIS stands for _Naval Criminal Investigative Service_, and is an actual federal agency in the US.

Thom E. Gemcity writes from an insider's perspective; his author's bio states he's been an employee of the real NCIS for a few years now. His is a wonderful new voice on the scene in a very crowded world of crime fiction. I'd never even heard of NCIS until I read _Deep Six_, the first novel Gemcity wrote.

For _Rock Hollow_, Gemcity expands beautifully on the already existing characters he introduced us to in _Deep_ _Six._ He has also thankfully scaled-back the sometimes confusing techno-jargon spouted by Agent McGregor, which I admit is way over my head, and was a bit off-putting in the first installment.

When a Petty Officer becomes implicated in the murder of a convenience-store clerk, it's up to Special Agent L.J. Tibbs and team to get to the bottom of it before it's too late. There's plenty of action if you're really into that, but a lot of smart investigative-type stuff, too. And the brand of humor we've become accustomed to from Agent Tommy is back in full force. (I loved his allusion to the movie '_A Christmas Story' _with the "You'll put your eye out, kid" quip when they discovered the javelin!)

All-in-all, a very satisfying read.'

0 out of 15 people found the next 'review' helpful, if Tim could even call it a review:

'Capital_Res' wrote:

0 stars out of 5 - **Get a map!**

'Does this guy even live in DC? He gets half the places and locations wrong, and don't get me started on all that junk science that Amy Sutton gets into. Gemcity needs to stop watching CSI and take a tour of a real forensics lab, maybe take a real tour of Virginia and surrounding areas, too.'

Tim rolled his eyes. When he read 'reviews' like that, he often wondered if the person actually read his book, or if they were posting comments to stir up flames, or just a combination of both.

1 out of 2 people found the next review helpful:

'SpecialAgent_K' wrote:

5 stars out of 5 – **Rock Hollow Rocks!!**

'A friend recommended _Deep Six_ to me when it came out and I got hooked. So I was really excited when I heard about _Rock Hollow._ I heard rumours that Gemcity was going to kill off Special Agent McGregor, so I was holding my breath every time he was in potential danger. That's what I love so much about his novels. He really makes you care about the characters. They're so human and real. I mean, you even care what happens to the secondary characters! I totally cried when Special Agent Carla Presley got killed off. I know she was just this background character and all, but I just wasn't expecting it. It looked like she and Agent Tommy may have had some sparks happening, so it's too bad. But what am I saying? We all know that he and Lisa are perfect for each other. They just need to admit it. And I nearly cried again when McGregor proposed to Amy, but in a good way. And how cute are Tibbs and that Army lady? I didn't think that LJ would go for that type, but it works. They should really make a movie out of these books! Now THAT would rock.'

The notion that either _Deep Six_ or _Rock Hollow_ might end up on the silver screen tickled Tim. _As if..._

0 out of 7 people found the next review helpful:

'Redskinsfan' wrote:

0 stars out of 5 – **whatver**

'did anyone actually try that hairy hangover drink? that lame attempt gets a 0 out of 5 for everything from taste to creativity. Gemcity your full of it! who puts tobasko in jagermister? gag me!'

6 out of 9 people found the next review helpful:

'Avid_Reader' wrote:

3 ½ stars out of 5 – **Sophomore effort comes up short**

I had high hopes for _Rock Hollow_, the sequel to the thrilling _Deep Six_ by Thom E. Gemcity. It starts off with a murder committed by a Petty Officer named Cameron Meyer and his pal, Jared. First mistake. We're already a few chapters in, and we know whodunnit. Okay, so we don't know all the whys until later, but that's half the suspense gone, already.

Then there's the victim. Boring! Who really cares about a convenience store clerk? Total throwaway character! So then we have this long, meandering plot with NCIS trying to track down some extortionists that Cameron was involved with, because you know, crime story writing 101 tells you that you need a motive for killing someone, and it's either love, or money. Gemcity goes with money this time.

It just felt like Gemcity was stuck in a rut with this one. The characters barely breathe except when they're trying to ignore that they're in love with each other, which means they're bickering with each other more than anything else. I guess he tries to inject some excitement into the story when he offs a minor character that was introduced in _Deep Six_, but it falls flat because once she's dead, no one ever really mentions her again.

By the end of _Rock Hollow_, I was left feeling like I'd been cheated out of a good, wholesome story. In short, I felt hollow. Hopefully Gemcity's next attempt won't feel so rushed.'

_Fair enough_, Tim thought, remembering all too well how 'stuck' he was while trying to write the novel.

He was about to head to bed when one last review caught his eye.

'Probationary agents should not be allowed to write this stuff. If _Rock Hollow_ were a movie, I'd give it two thumbs, way down! Don't quit your day job, McHack!'

_What on earth..._ Tim frowned, drawing his eyebrows in together. The tone of that review somehow... He scrolled up slightly to read the name of the poster.

0 out of 0 people found this review helpful.

Dizzny O'Toon wrote:

0 out of 5 stars. **Source material too hot for author to handle.**

Tim then re-read the less-than-flattering comment again: _'Probationary agents should not be allowed to write this stuff. If Rock Hollow were a movie, I'd give it two thumbs, way down! Don't quit your day job, McHack!'_

_Dizzny O'Toon..._

"I am _so_ gonna kill Tony..." Tim fumed, after deciphering the silly anagram.

Tim wondered then what DiNozzo would think of 'source material' if 'Agent Tommy' should happen to unexpectedly die in his third novel...

_Was this review helpful? _The 'Yes' and 'No' options stared back at Tim, tantalizingly.

It almost made him want to spam Amazon.


End file.
